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Brantford-Brant

City Coun. John Bradford says he and his family are "devastated" by a "vindictive" smear campaign by an anonymous enemy who is sending scurrilous emails and letters to residents in his ward in a bid to destroy his chances at re-election.

Concerned about the toll it is taking on himself and his family, Bradford has appealed to city police and Canada Post to launch an investigation to identify the source -known only as "Peter Politics" - and put an end to the perpetrator's activities.

"I'm devastated. Absolutely personally devastated. I'm extremely emotional and so are all my family," Bradford said Tuesday while fighting to maintain composure.

"I'm a person of integrity. Someone has such vitriolic hate and wants to punish me. I just don't understand it."

Bradford said he is doing what he can to fight back against a wave of emails that began making its way through the city and his ward in the past three weeks, and a second wave of letters in blank envelopes that have recently started arriving at homes in mailouts through Canada Post.

The e-mails and the letters carry identical messages, which Bradford claims are damaging his integrity and attacking his personal relationships with members of his extended family in a way that is meant to demean him.

In the message, a copy of which has been received by The Expositor, the unknown sender invites Ward 5 residents to ask Bradford a series of questions when he arrives on their doorsteps in his re-election campaign.

Most of the questions have to do with alleged problems in relationships in the Bradford household, which the councillor says are groundless and whose real purpose is to target his character -hurting other family members in the process.

"It's anonymous. It's cowardly. It doesn't make sense," he said.

"Someone hates me and doesn't have the courage to face me, but has the willingness to destroy my family."

Bradford said he was advised by friends when the emails started moving. He said he called the police and sought legal advice.

"I was advised that the contents of the email constitute defamatory statements."

He added that he recruited a friend who is a computer expert to try to identify the person of origin.

"We've been unsuccessful to this date."

Then less than a week ago, Bradford said he was informed that a mailout was in progress.

He received confirmation of that in the past two days when his wife Janet opened a blank envelope and found the message.

He called police again Tuesday.

City police Insp. Kent Pottruff said Tuesday afternoon he couldn't comment on Bradford's request at that point because there was no official record of it.

Bradford also said he has been working with Canada Post officials hoping they will investigate the matter to identify the contractor of the mailout and stop any future ones from occurring.

Canada Post officials were not available for comment Tuesday.

Bradford acknowledged the timing of the emails and letters puts him at a disadvantage with only five days to go until election day, but said he will continue to get to the bottom of it.